Huge Realization! "Finishing Touches" 2x as actual task!

I clocked myself to to do tasks :
Send letter with headshots and resumes to an agency
and
type up addendum for future earnings-goals (that I had already written up on paper)

The total time to do both of those tasks as fast as I could: 15 minutes.

But I told myself NOT to focus on the little followup details. These include
Adding 2 agencies to address book
proofreading Financial addendum
Making sure the dimensional analysis adds up
archiving the relationship with the agency
creating a W/F for the agency
making a follow-up @ phone or @email for the other agency

Total time for "tying loose ends to those" tasks: 30 minutes
Those 5 follow-up for those 2 tasks took TWICE as long as actually accomplishign the task! In other words it took me 15 minutes to MARK "DONE" on those two mini-projects-NAs

But the follow-ups and integrating all of them into addressbook system and proofreading and tying up loose ends took 2x per long!

I'm positive the same is true for a 10 hour project. Followups/Finishing touches/Tying lose ends would take 20 hours!!

So NAs and projects Balloon to 3 times as long as they have to be possibly!

A teach told me "god is in the details", others say the devils in the details. Maybe true, but I'e got to find a way to focus on cutting down the "details Followups/Finishing touches/Tying lose ends" to projects or NAs to get more things done Faster!

(Note: this is related to the "Finishing Tasks, Need to Fix this" thread beause it helps with the solution to that but was such a huge breakthrough that I wanted to share it here). Then if you include the 5-10 minutes it took to write up this revelation. The ENTIRE clock time for those 2 projects could have been 15, but turned into 60 minutes!!

This is an amazing breakthrough because NOW I know why I dread doing tasks, it's the painstaking follow-up, loose end, hell and double checking to make sure all address books are accurate and archived, proofread, etc.

wow, I MUST cut down on "loose-end proofreading" but WITHOUT losing the thoroughness and comprehensiveness of completing my tasks.

I clocked myself to to do tasks :
Send letter with headshots and resumes to an agency
and
type up addendum for future earnings-goals (that I had already written up on paper)

The total time to do both of those tasks as fast as I could: 15 minutes.

But I told myself NOT to focus on the little followup details. These include
Adding 2 agencies to address book
proofreading Financial addendum
Making sure the dimensional analysis adds up
archiving the relationship with the agency
creating a W/F for the agency
making a follow-up @ phone or @email for the other agency

Total time for "tying loose ends to those" tasks: 30 minutes
Those 5 follow-up for those 2 tasks took TWICE as long as actually accomplishign the task! In other words it took me 15 minutes to MARK "DONE" on those two mini-projects-NAs

But the follow-ups and integrating all of them into addressbook system and proofreading and tying up loose ends took 2x per long!

A couple of thoughts.

The job isn't over until the paperwork is done. If the "loose ends" take twice as long as the project itself, it seems to me that the real challenge is project planning. Either you need to decide that the loose ends don't actually deserve so much time, or you need to accept that they *do* need to happen and allocate time for them. Nothing will kill your motivation faster than sinking a whole afternoon into something you thought was trivial. It's much easier if you can see the lost afternoon coming and plan for it.

Second, if tasks like "add agency to address book" or "create Waiting For" take more than a minute by themselves, you've got a *serious* inefficiency in your system somewhere. If you have large numbers of these tasks they can still add up to substantial time, but they should be trivial individually.

Comment

The job isn't over until the paperwork is done. If the "loose ends" take twice as long as the project itself, it seems to me that the real challenge is project planning. Either you need to decide that the loose ends don't actually deserve so much time, or you need to accept that they *do* need to happen and allocate time for them. Nothing will kill your motivation faster than sinking a whole afternoon into something you thought was trivial. It's much easier if you can see the lost afternoon coming and plan for it.

Second, if tasks like "add agency to address book" or "create Waiting For" take more than a minute by themselves, you've got a *serious* inefficiency in your system somewhere. If you have large numbers of these tasks they can still add up to substantial time, but they should be trivial individually.

Katherine

Good point underlining thoroughness, Katherine. But maybe I should simply included this in the thread "Finishing Tasks, Need to fix this". My problem was finishing tasks and this helps me do that with tremendous efficacy because I have scope and the sensation of getting them done. I crisply accomplishd four mini-projects today, when before just ONE of those would have branched out into 4-5 hours of sub-tasks and mini other things unrelated to the original task. Timing the task starts tremendous productivity.

No. No serious efficiency problem. i'm quite efficient actually. Adding agent to address book takes awhile because it's electroinc and I double-check their url and phone number and may need more info than i original had. Additionally, I keep not of contacts I've made with agencies and which ones have contacted me and if there was an audition, mail sent out, etc. You need to record those things to guage your success and work input. Creating a w/f takes about 30 seconds tops.

Actually planning isn't much of the problem. It's just timing myself and getting these things done. As I do more of that, I'll become aware of the steps for xyz type of tasks which will help more instantaneous planning ofr similar tasks. my problem was that I'd plan TOO much! Sink an after noon on organizing what to do and not doing it. So thanks for your "planning advice" but the solution for me lies not with plans, but with timing and selecting only two nas, mini-projects at at time.

I won't sink whole afternoons anymore with this awesome 2-at-a-time, TIMED system. Timing it works wondes. I have had a problem of doing that, but this solves that, boosts efficiency. So this isn't askign or advice it's posting a succcess story. thanks.

Comment

A good friend and mentor once told me that there are three types of tasks:

Those that should not be done.
Those that should be done well.
Those that should be done, but not well.

The trick is to know the difference

NOW THAT!!! IS GREAT ADVICE!!! Thanks, dschaffner. I really appreciate that. That's EXACTLY what I need to distinguish!! I treat EVERY task with the "Shold be done well" priority, when in reality some of those tasks may not even need to be done, or "done well 'at all! Labelling each task as such will help cut time immensely! Thanks.

Comment

A couple of thoughts.
... it seems to me that the real challenge is project planning.
Katherine

You could be right, k . But there's a balance between planning healthily with the 10/90 rule (10% planning saves 90% work) and jsut doing it. I will benefit the most from the latter because of my ability to overplan on occasion. On the other hand, I just do things intuitively so planning could hinder me, on other tasks, though, planning could be a livesaver.

Comment

A couple of thoughts.
... it seems to me that the real challenge is project planning.
Katherine

You could be right, k . But there's a balance between planning healthily with the 10/90 rule (10% planning saves 90% work) and jsut doing it. I will benefit the most from the latter because of my ability to overplan on occasion. On the other hand, I just do things intuitively so planning could hinder me, on other tasks, though, planning could be a livesaver.

Of extreme importance is considering the value and upper 50k-40k implementation of a project , too.